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Better known as "Bernie," he is the president of Lease Police, Inc., Dallas, Texas. The Leasing News Advisory Board voted on this honor for his body of work: starting Pioneer Leasing September, 1983 (later changed to Pioneer Capital Corp.) with one of the first online automations of contracts and lease status submitted by brokers and vendors. Bernie first retired in 2006. Within a few months, realizing there was still work to be done for the Leasing Industry, he began work on a new project which he funded himself. On March 5, 2007, he launched Lease Police, Inc., serving as its president.

His company developed a software program to collect confidential information from members to protect lessors from vendor fraud as well as providing information inexpensively on vendor, lessee, and suspect behavior. At this point, Lease Police became a major financial contribution to the leasing industry.

A native New Yorker, Bernie graduated from Iona College, New Rochelle, N.Y. with a B.B.A in Finance. After four years at Dun & Bradstreet, he entered the appliance manufacturing and distribution world. During that time he held Officer and Director positions with Norge Division of Borg Warner Corp., Fednor Corp., and B-W Acceptance Corp.

As the CEO of ALD, Inc., an OTC manufacturer of commercial laundry and car wash equipment, he was the recipient of the prestigious “E Award “for excellent growth in export sales,” awarded by President Ronald Reagan in March, 1982.

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Free Posting for those seeking employment in Leasing:http://www.leasingnews.org/Classified/Jwanted/Jwanted-post.htm

Aubrey Lee Price, former bank director of failed Montgomery Bank & Trust, Ailey, Georgia, was found alive in Brunswick, Georgia, after faking his death. He apparently had returned to Georgia to renew the tag on his truck, and was stopped in a routine traffic stop over illegally tinted windows. He reportedly was also "hoarding" marijuana plants.

The U.S. Coast Guard complained that it spent more than $173,000 searching for Price in the belief that he had jumped off the ferry.

Here’s the story:

July 9, 2009 the FDIC closed Montgomery Bank & Trust, Ailey, Georgia. The bank had 45 full time employees as of March 31, 2012 at their two offices in Vidalia and one office in Ailey. December 31, 2008, they had 89 full time employees.

The FDIC estimated that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) to have been $75.2 million.

What happens seems to be a major embezzlement with the U.S. Attorney's office charging Montgomery Bank director, and one-time metro Atlanta investment adviser Aubrey Lee Price with wire fraud of $17 million from the bank. After telling upper management that he was investing in U.S. Treasury securities, he wired bank funds to accounts he controlled and prepared falsified statements to cover his tracks, the federal complaint said. He is also charged with allegedly defrauding more than 100 clients in Georgia and Florida.

Aubrey Lee Price was charged in federal court in Georgia with one count of wire fraud on June 28, 2012, and could face up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine, the FBI said. He also is subject to stealing over $21 million from clients and investing in real estate that got caught in the downturn of the housing marketplace.

According to reports at the time, a letter bearing his name was sent to friends and colleagues about the same time that said he had lost millions of dollars in client funds and suggested he intended to commit suicide.”

Price was reportedly last seen boarding a ferry in Key West, Florida, bound for Fort Myers, Fla. A surveillance camera caught him purchasing the ticket. He had "previously stated that he owns real estate in Venezuela" and "may own a boat that would be large enough to travel to Venezuela from Florida."

Before his arrest, he was last seen getting ticketsto the ferry in this YouTube:

A judge reportedly declared that was dead, but the FBI kept him on the "most wanted list."

Perhaps Sheldon Player of Equipment Acquisition Resources is also still alive, despite current rumors.

(Left view of gorgeous ocean from my room where I work on Leasing News, near Shipwreck Beach, Poipu; on top of the Grand Hyatt Hotel, where you can see whales playing in the distance, and also walk to the cove and watch turtles going after the schools of fish, local fisherman catching larger fish with a net, or sit on the beach or shoreline and wave to BSB’s Don Myerson in his early morning run along the beach walkways; he and his family live close by six months out of the year.)

Readers who sent me “Happy New Year” salutations also told me how well 2013 was and what they expect in 2014:

“Happy New Year. I just wanted to share that FinPac funded $20.6 MM in December and maintained an average 67 minute turnaround time from application submission to final credit decision. This is roughly twice what we had been funding at the beginning of the year. We are so excited about our expanded ability to serve the TPO/broker community that we have enjoyed relationships with for the past 30 years."

These companies do not use language to confuse, perhaps to deceive, with the result an automatic continuation for an additional twelve months of payments. They do not invoke the twelve months on a $1.00 purchase option or an Equipment Finance Agreement.

In its editorial of June 30, 2011, Leasing News recommends that the equipment lessor send a certified letter with return receipt; however, at this time, the acceptance of the word of the president of the company will be accepted until proven otherwise. http://leasingnews.org/archives/Jun2011/6_30.htm#editorial

www.maximcc.com
Maxim Commercial Capital is a commercial finance
company committed to fostering the growth of
small and middle market companies by providing
creative and flexible asset-backed financing solutions

On occasion I am asked how to sell lease portfolios for one reason or another. There are a few issues to consider to get prepared to offer a portfolio for sale. The first is the type of lease. They need to be similar transactions. You cannot put tax leases with nontax leases or non-profit with finance leases.

Second it is very important to have a good lease bookkeeping computer based program. It is hard to sell a portfolio with any age that has not been properly accounted for and is easy to convert. Hopefully all the accounting has been automated and easy to convert. The work necessary to rebook on a different system will lower the value and may make it unsaleable. You need to find a funding source that has the same booking system that you are using so the transfer can be done will a minor effort, or is easily assumable by the party purchasing the portfolio. This is very important. Choosing the software to use may be as important, perhaps more so with this purpose, they the quality of your credits, as the correct software is not only revealing, but easily transferable to the buyer of the portfolio.

Make sure in your bookkeeping system you code leases that separates the different types of leases into individual portfolios. The buy rate may depend on different territories, or remaining term, or type of lease. The better you can separate your leases the easier it is to determine where your income comes from and also helps at tax time.

Tax lease transactions are hard to sell because a “sale” is a transfer of tax title that usually causes a taxable gain to the seller and a loss in value to the purchaser. It is best to establish a separate company to book the transactions because you can sell the company, instead of the portfolio, without the tax consequences.

Some portfolios contain a broad range of credit quality. Lessors like to do this because they think they can sell a problem lease that appears to be hidden by the size of the portfolios. However, the funder may increase the buy rate to cover the concern of other hidden potential problem leases. I recommend taking problem leases and placing them into a separate group of leases that can be sold to high rate funders. This may not sound effective but a higher rate on a few will be outweighed by the lower rate on the larger good credit portfolio.

In addition, funders have different ideas on what they want to buy so you need to poll your funders and ask what they are interested in to properly align funders with their risk appetites. Also it is wise to be on the lookout for new funders. There are funding gatherings presented by all of the lease trade associations so it is wise to go to them and introduce yourself.

Preparation is the key to being successful when putting a portfolio up for sale. The more you can separate the portfolio into its separate parts the better chance you will have in getting the correct buy rate.

I also strongly recommend using a professional to negotiate and represent you in the sale of your portfolio, no matter its size.

Mr. Terry Winders, CLP, has been a teacher, consultant, expert witness for the leasing industry for thirty years and can be reached at terrywinders11@yahoo.com or 502-649-0448.

Mr. Terry Winders available as Expert Witness. 35 years as a professional instructor to the top equipment leasing and finance companies in the United States, author of several books, including DVD's, as well as weekly columnist to Leasing News. He also performs audits of leasing companies as an expert on documentation, and has acted as an expert witness on leasing for litigation in legal and tax disputes, including before the IRS. He also has taught the senior bank examiners, how to review a bank leasing department, for the Federal Reserve in Washington D.C. and has trained the examiners for the FDIC on how to prepare a lease portfolio for sale.

Mr. Winders received his Master of Business Administration and his Bachelor of Science degrees from the College of Notre Dame.

502.649.0448/terrywinders11@yahoo.com

(This ad is a “trade” for the writing of this column. Opinions
contained in the column are those of Mr. Terry Winders, CLP)

5 largest banks own 44% of the industryBy Marshall Schraibman,
SNL Financial Special Report

The U.S.'s five largest banks and thrifts own 44% of the bank and thrift industry's total assets, as of Sept. 30, according to a recent analysis by SNL.

For the purposes of this analysis, SNL defined the banking industry as commercial banks, savings banks and savings institutions.

Individually chartered institutions within the same corporate structure were considered as separate institutions.

JPMorgan Chase Bank NA, Bank of America NA, Citibank NA, Wells Fargo Bank NA and U.S. Bank NA together had $6.46 trillion in total assets at the end of the third quarter, compared to $8.15 trillion by the rest of the banking industry. JPMorgan Chase Bank NA, the main commercial bank subsidiary of JPMorgan Chase & Co., alone owned 13.62% of the entire industry's assets. In contrast, the five largest banks in 1990 had just $457.92 billion in total assets or 9.67% of the industry's total assets.

Total assets concentrated in the five largest banking institutions have steadily increased since 1990, reaching a peak in the third quarter of this year. Consequently, different narratives have emerged on how to interpret consolidation in the industry — some argue that the industry is overbanked and increasing regulatory burden has made it less and less practical to operate as a smaller institution. Others have contended that consolidation has only exacerbated the complexity of the banking system, worsening regulator's abilities to manage bank safety and perpetuating the notion of "too big to fail."

Still, small bank deals are unlikely to move the needle in asset concentration, and even the largest banks seem to agree that so-called "transformational deals," the largest bank deals which helped banks become the behemoths they are now, have reached a dead end for the time being.

U.S. Bank NA was the only institution in this analysis whose parent company did not also rank in the top five in SNL's third-quarter top tier bank and thrift asset ranking, which included bank and thrift holding companies. In that list, U.S. Bancorp ranked sixth behind Bank of New York Mellon Corp.

The composition of the five largest institutions in 2013 hasn't changed significantly from the five largest in 1990. Chase Manhattan Bank NA, Morgan Guaranty Trust Co. of New York and Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co., the third, fourth and fifth largest institutions in 1990, are all, in some form, now a part of JPMorgan Chase & Co., the parent company of the currently largest commercial bank, JPMorgan Chase Bank NA.

Citibank NA only dropped 2 spots in 23 years, going from $157.82 billion in assets in 1990 to $1.34 trillion in assets as of the third quarter of 2013. Citibank NA was the subsidiary of Citicorp during its high profile merger with Travelers Group Inc. in 1998. A legacy institution of Bank of America Corp., Bank America National Trust & Savings NA, was also among the top five institutions in 1990. In 1999 Bank of America National Trust & Savings NA was merged into Bank of America NA (formerly NationsBank NA), the currently second-largest institution in the U.S.

While the largest banks have continued to capture a larger portion of the industry, their returns on those assets have only recently begun to outsize the industry as a whole. For the nine months ended Sept. 30, the five largest institutions' median return on average assets (ROAA) was 1.20%, nearly 50% higher than the industry median ROAA of .80%. However the 1990s showed nearly the opposite trend — from 1990 to 1999 the industry's ROAA, on average, was 33 basis points higher than the five largest institutions.

In 2013, the level of consumer financial anxiety declined
to its lowest level in four years. The Money Anxiety Index decreased
by more than 10 points throughout the year
– from 92.4 in January to 81.9 in December of this year.

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – The Money Anxiety Index (moneyanxietyindex.com) declined to a recorded low in the past four years reflecting a more favorable financial mood among consumers. The December Money Anxiety Index, which currently stands at 81.9, was 10.5 points higher at 92.4 in the beginning of 2013. The 10.5 point decline in the level of consumer financial anxiety in 2013 was the greatest single-year improvement in the past four years. Cumulatively over the past four years, the Money Anxiety Index declined 12.5 points, from 94.4 in October of 2010 to its current level of 81.9.

Dan Geller, Ph.D.

“Overall, 2013 was a good year for the economy” said Dan Geller, Ph.D. Behavioral Economist, “whenever the level of financial anxiety decreases we can expect an improvement in the economy because less anxious consumers spend more, and personal consumption makes up about 70 percent of the economy.”

The improvement in the level of consumers’ financial anxiety is reflected in some major economic indicators such as personal consumption and retail sales. Personal consumption has gradually increased throughout 2013 indicating more financially confident consumers. In the first quarter of 2013, personal consumption increased by 1.1 percent over the fourth quarter of 2012. In the second quarter of 2013, the increase in personal consumption jumped to 2.5 percent over the previous quarter, and in the third quarter of this year, the increase reached 4.1 percent according to data from the US Department of Commerce.

Another indication of improved level of consumer financial anxiety is the report released last week by The Commerce Department showing that durable goods orders jumped 3.5 percent in November as demand increased for a range of goods from aircraft to machinery and computers and electronic products. Non-defense orders, excluding aircraft, surged 4.5 percent making November’s figure the largest increase since January. The report suggested strength in manufacturing, which supports the observation made by the Money Anxiety Index that consumers are exhibiting less financial anxiety, thus creating greater demand for durable goods.

The link between consumers’ financial anxiety and their spending habits has been documented and demonstrated in the newly published book Money Anxiety (moneyanxiety.com), which shows empirically the link between consumers’ level of financial anxiety and personal expenditure. The Money anxiety book also explains why the level of consumer financial anxiety impacts retail sales and bank savings by introducing a newly-developed segmentation method called Behavioralogy, which defines the financial behavior of consumers during various levels of financial anxiety. Behavioralogy identified six types of financial orientations: Mattress Money, Durable Diet, Power Play, Tiny Treats, Rate Race and Castle Craze.

As we look forward to more discoveries in 2014, let us take a moment to look back at ten exceptional 2013 releases.

Before Midnight: Presenting the sequel to "Before Sunrise" and "Before Sunset" director Richard Linklater invites audiences to catch up with the series' complex characters once more as they contemplate their relationship from an older, wiser but no less impulsive vantage. While vacationing in Greece, Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) struggle to hold their love together. Helped by warm and thorny performances, Linklater creates a warm, delicate and achingly poignant film where the passage of time is felt in sync with the emotions of the characters.

Computer Chess: One of the leading lights of the independent film movement known as "mumblecore," writer-director Andrew Bujalski comes up with his most ambitious movie yet with this inventively deadpan comedy. Set in the early 1980s during a weekend-long technology convention, where a group of computer experts gather to compete for the title of electronic chess champ. The "mumblecore" emphasis on low-wattage talk and awkward characters is still here, though Bujalski has added new layers of visual experimentation and surreal humor.

Drug War: After decades of gritty, unpredictable movies, veteran Hong Kong filmmaker Johnnie To may finally reach U.S. audiences with this slam-bang thriller. Unfolding in a treacherous netherworld where law and crime are separated by a very thin line, the plot focuses on the tenuous alliance between police captain Zhang (Sun Honglei) and arrested drug lord Timmy Choi (Louis Koo). Featuring action, tension and characterizations that put most of Hollywood's glossy blockbusters to shame, To's film is one of the year's most robust and compelling features.

The Grandmaster: Better known for his gorgeous romances, the great Chinese director Wong Kar Wai ("In the Mood for Love") tries his hand at action with thrilling results. The story chronicles Ip Man (Tony Leung Chiu Wai), the martial-arts specialist better known for teaching Bruce Lee, as he drifts through Chinese history starting with the turbulent 1930s. Blending astonishing visual beauty with a heartbreaking turn by Ziyi Zhang, is a spellbinding portrait of a man’s artistic pursuit that also works as a rousing action extravaganza.

Inside Llewyn Davis: Joel and Ethan Coen, the Oscar-winning fraternal filmmaking team behind "No Country for Old Men," serve up another extraordinary comedy-drama in this bittersweet account of the folk music scene in the early 1960s. In a breakthrough performance, Oscar Isaac stars as Llewyn Davis, a young guitar player struggling for a piece of the Greenwich Village artistic scene while facing one obstacle after another. Combining melancholy emotion with a great soundtrack, the Coens create an indelible portrait of the artist's perpetual search for recognition.

Leviathan: Marine life never seemed more nightmarishly alive than in Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel's unusual, breathtaking documentary. Shot aboard a huge commercial fishing vessel as it makes its rounds in the North Atlantic Ocean, the film details the arduous work that goes into hauling masses of fish out of the sea. Rather than realistic data, however, this unrelentingly intense journey focuses startlingly in the surreal, visceral sensations of the voyage. Adventurous viewers will emerge from it shaken and stirred.

Like Someone in Love: One of the greatest living filmmakers, Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami has increasingly worked towards a more mysterious, international type of cinema. His latest film, a follow-up to the splendid "Certified Copy," follows a trio of characters whose paths cross in Japan, leading to a half-comic, half-suspenseful charade. Making masterful use of camera compositions, Kiarostami follows these people through the bustling city, fascinated by their secrets and discoveries. The result is one of the year's best and most effortlessly profound films.

Passion: The screen's great bad boy, director Brian De Palma is in provocative top form in this gorgeous, twisty thriller. Set at a vast European advertisement agency, the slippery narrative chronicles the manipulative power plays between two women, the ruthless office honcho (Rachel McAdams) and her deceptively mousy protégée (Noomi Rapace). Amply showcasing the sly sense of humor, dazzling camera technique and exhilarating love of cinema that's made him a favorite of many a movie buff, De Palma serves up a delicious cinematic ride.

Stories We Tell: For her third movie as a director, Sarah Polley ("Away We Go") turns to the documentary genre to craft a moving letter to her loved ones. Using her camera as a detective's magnifying glass, she conducts a string of interviews with family members and friends, often getting complicated, humorously contradictory responses. Unfurling as something both profoundly personal and universally accessible, Polley's inspired movie is a poignant, funny and inventive look at the crossroads of memory and storytelling.

The Wolf of Wall Street: After the gentleness of "Hugo," legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese comes roaring back to men behaving badly in this half-scabrous, half-exhilarating dark comedy. Leonardo DiCaprio gives the performance of his career as a New York stock broker whose illegal tactics give him unlimited access to a world of grungy pleasures. When crime enters the corporate world, however, his world begins to spin dizzyingly out of control. A potent mix of humor and anger, Scorsese's movie is an unforgettable walk on the wild side.

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"Hide Away doesn't look like a girl who would hide herself away from the people trying to rescue her, but these are the actions of so many dogs who come to Stray Rescue. Once they settle into the love and care given so freely at the shelter, they turn into confident and alert looking dogs like the one you see here.

"At the age of three, Hide Away is past puppy frivolity, but she is still full of fun and activity. She may not chew your slippers, but she would love to take you for a good walk around the neighborhood every day. After all that exercise, she would be happy to snuggle on the couch with you. One of Hide Away's favorite activities is kissing, which she does at every opportunity. She also likes toys and treats, of course. Recently Hide Away got to go on a five mile hike with her shelter friends. She enjoyed every minute that she was sniffing the trail, listening to the sounds of nature, and splashing in a creek. She was not one bit bothered by the hikers, joggers or other dogs. On the way back to the shelter, Hide Away got her reward - a fast food hamburger. She has now added that item to list of favorite activities.

"Hide Away is looking for a loving, forever home where she will never feel again the need to hide her beautiful self because she is having too much fun."

www.maximcc.com
Maxim Commercial Capital is a commercial finance
company committed to fostering the growth of
small and middle market companies by providing
creative and flexible asset-backed financing solutions